UCI agrees to strip Lance Armstrong of 7 Tour de France titles, bans him for life

Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, and banned for life from the sport, after the International Cycling Union agreed to the harsh measures on Monday following a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accused him of leading a massive doping program. (LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS)

The International Cycling Union stripped the disgraced cyclist of his seven Tour de France titles Monday and banned him for life, even as his legal and financial problems mounted.

Cycling's governing body agreed to accept the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's findings of "overwhelming" evidence that Armstrong was involved in "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program" in the history of sports.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling, and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union, or UCI, said at a news conference in Geneva.

McQuaid's comment confirmed that the federation had accepted the Anti-Doping Agency's report on Armstrong and would not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The result is a devastating indictment of one of the most iconic athletes in sports history.

"This is a landmark day for cycling," McQuaid added.

Publicly, at least, Armstrong remained silent Monday.

But he was spotted on a jog outside his $3.2 million Austin, Texas mansion wearing ASICS sneakers, possibly as a snub to Nike, who recently dropped him.

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said the Tour will now officially remove Armstrong's name from the record books, erasing his consecutive victories from 1999 to 2005.

UCI President Pat McQuaid announced that the federation accepted the USADA’s report on Armstrong and would not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

There will be no official winner for those years, he said, largely because many of the runnersup have also been accused of or admitted doping. (According to Anti-Doping Agency, 20 of the 21 riders on the podium in the Tour from 1999 to 2005 have been "directly tied to likely doping through admissions, sanctions, public investigations" or other means.)

For Armstrong, there's more bad news to come. Prudhomme told reporters in Paris that Armstrong should repay the Tour the prize money he won, while a Dallas-based company that insured Armstrong's bonus money for three Tours de France said it is considering recouping at least $12 million from Armstrong.

"The UCI rules are clear: When a rider loses his title, he must reimburse his winnings," Prudhomme said. "We would have preferred that none of this had happened."

SCA Promotions, which a spokesman described as an international promotional prize provider, insured the bonuses for three of Armstrong's Tour victories (2002-04). It said in a statement that it is "digesting the UCI's decision, and is considering all legal options to pursue a return of the funds paid by SCA to Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong is no longer the official winner of any Tour de France races and, as a result, it is inappropriate and improper for him to retain any bonus payments made by SCA."

Armstrong denies doping, saying he passed hundreds of drug tests. But he chose not to fight USADA in one of the agency’s arbitration hearings, arguing the process was biased against him. (MIKE HUTCHINGS/REUTERS)

SCA became suspicious of Armstrong in 2004 after the release of the book, "L.A. Confidentiel: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong," and withheld the bonus.

The case ended up in arbitration, and SCA ended up paying Armstrong $7.5 million in a settlement. "(Armstrong) had other bonuses from other companies, and who knows if they're going to go after him or not," said a source familiar with the SCA litigation.

In addition, The Sunday Times of London said after the release of the Anti-Doping Agency report that it is considering pursuing Armstrong for fraud and to recover money spent on a libel case he brought against the newspaper in 2004. Other defendants in the many defamation lawsuits Armstrong has filed against accusers may consider legal action, too.

The doping agency report detailed the role Armstrong played in aiding his teammates' drug use and the massive coverup that lasted for more than a decade. Fifteen of Armstrong's former teammates, including George Hincapie, who rode on the U.S. Postal Service and Discovery teams with Armstrong on all seven Tour victories, and convicted dopers Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, told of Armstrong's drug use — and their own — in sworn affidavits to the Anti-Doping Agency.

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said UCI made the right decision, despite the governing body's prior opposition to his agency's investigation into Armstrong's teams.

The agency "is glad that the UCI finally reversed course in this case and has made the credible decision available to it," Tygart said. "This determination to uphold (the Anti-Doping Agency's) decision on the U.S. Postal Service case does not by itself clean up cycling nor does it ensure the sport has moved past the obstacles that allowed doping to flourish in the age of EPO and blood transfusions."

Tygart went on to say that for cycling "to truly move forward and for the world to know what went on in cycling," a "truth and reconciliation commission" should be established to help the sport "fully unshackle itself from the past."

Armstrong has vehemently denied doping for years, pointing to what he says are hundreds of passed drug tests. The Anti-Doping Agency report contradicts that claim, saying that in one instance Armstrong's physician backdated a prescription to account for a positive test for corticosteroids.

As the Daily News reported Sunday, Armstrong basically operated as a drug kingpin, using intimidation tactics that included threats of litigation and financial damage to silence his critics.

McQuaid said Monday he was "sickened by what I read" in the (Anti-Doping Agency) report, and singled out the testimony of former Armstrong teammate David Zabriskie, who said he was forced into doping. "The story he told of how he was coerced and to some extent forced into doping is just mind-boggling," said McQuaid.

The UCI, however, has its own issues with the report. According to testimony by Hamilton and Landis, Armstrong told them he had made one positive test disappear with a payment to UCI in 2001. On Monday, McQuaid again denied that Armstrong paid off the UCI, although he said that the cyclist made a $100,000 donation to the UCI in 2002.

The Anti-Doping Agency report has seriously damaged Armstrong's reputation and earning power: Longtime sponsors Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Trek Bicycle, Oakley and others dropped him following his resignation as chairman of Livestrong, the cancer awareness charity he founded after surviving testicular cancer.

The report also implicates Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari, depicted as the architect of Armstrong's doping programs. Ferrari and Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral have also received lifetime bans.

Former U.S. Postal team director Johan Bruyneel, team doctor Pedro Celaya and trainer Jose (Pepe) Marti opted to take their cases to arbitration with the Anti-Doping Agency, which could call Armstrong as a witness at those hearings.

Tygart said Monday that cleaning up cycling won't end with sanctions against Armstrong.

"There are many more details of doping that are hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors, and the omerta has not yet been fully broken," he said. "Sanctioning Lance Armstrong and the riders who came forward truthfully should not be seen as penance for an era of pervasive doping. It is important to remember that while today is a historic day for clean sport, it does not mean clean sport is guaranteed for tomorrow."